The Dore Illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy (136 Plates by Gustave Dore)

His illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy constitute one of his most highly regarded efforts and were Doré's personal favorites.The present volume reproduces with excellent clarity all 135 plates that Doré produced for The Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise. His Doré Bible was a treasured possession in countless homes, and his best-received works continued to appear through the years in edition after edition. From the depths of hell onto the mountain of purgatory and up to the empyrean realms of paradise, Doré's illustrations depict the passion and grandeur of Dante's masterpiece in such famous scenes as the embarkation of the souls for hell, Paolo and Francesca (four plates), the forest of suicides, Thaïs the harlot, Bertram de Born holding his severed head aloft, Ugolino (four plates), the emergence of Dante and Virgil from hell, the ascent up the mountain, the flight of the eagle, Arachne

"The afterlife according to Dore and Danteand den zome." according to Steven J. Torrey. These illustrations were made without any specific Dante text in mind. They more than capture the essence of the Divine Comedy. Notions of the afterlife date all the way back to Greek poet Hesiod (ca. 750 BCE); Homer has Odysseus travel to the underworld were he sees the ''''''' (images) of those he had been familiar with on Earth; he can recognize these people just as Dante can . Nightmare masterpieces illustrating the terrors of the inferno Gustave Dore, the most successful illustrator of the 19th century, has produced a grim, dark, precise, nightmare masterwork in his illustrations for the Divine Comedy by Dante. For those familiar with the vast poem, The Divine Comedy, it is obvious that Dore knew the work well and in his grisly etchings captures the terror that dwells at the edge of each scene. Dore is a master o. "Great Aid to Reading the Divine Comedy" according to James G. Bruen Jr.. Though they can also be appreciated on their own by the casual viewer, Dore's illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy are a great aid while reading Dante's Divine Comedy. And, in turn, reading Dante's poem heightens one's appreciation of the illustrations. In his translation of Purgatory, John Ciardi cautions readers "to visualize Dante's scenes in terms of Dante's own details ra

His illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy constitute one of his most highly regarded efforts and were Doré's personal favorites.The present volume reproduces with excellent clarity all 135 plates that Doré produced for The Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise. From the depths of hell onto the mountain of purgatory and up to the empyrean realms of paradise, Doré's illustrations depict the passion and grandeur of Dante's masterpiece in such famous scenes as the embarkation of the souls for hell, Paolo and Francesca (four plates), the forest of suicides, Thaïs the harlot, Bertram de Born holding his severed head aloft, Ugolino (four plates), the emergence of Dante and Virgil from hell, the ascent up the mountain, the flight of the eagle, Arachne, the lustful sinners being purged in the